Don't you just hate spoilers? I do, too. That's why I always try to include warnings. However, I sometimes ramble a bit too much here or there and maybe a few (or many) key plot points slip without me giving proper notice. So I'd like to include a blanket spoiler warning for the weary internet travelers of the world: Here There Be Spoilers. You've been warned.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Yamada's First Time (B Gata H Kei)

Thanks to a recommendation by one of my best friends from high school I managed to discover a fun way abuse Netflix again. It's called Yamada's First Time, a 2010 anime with a short runtime of 12 episodes. It shouldn't come as a surprise at this point, but it is yet another entry in a long line of perverted works created by Japan.

It's about a fifteen year old school girl's desire to have sex with one hundred guys... and not much else. The only issue with her desire is that she has not only never had sex, but she hasn't even been kissed before. All isn't lost, though. What's that saying about getting to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. She just needs to find someone with which to start.

Naturally, she chooses the dullest-looking guy on the planet because of her insecurities about being a virgin. She could have just about any boy in school, but nope, she chooses Joe Schmo and gives hope to normies everywhere.

Her thoughts consist almost entirely of sex and how to achieve it. Basically, she's like a female version of Gene Simmons from KISS. Or wants to be.

Kosuda Takashi is the (un)lucky guy she chooses. He's a bit thrown for a loop by this strange girl that gets way too touchy-touchy and does strange things like make him try to fondle her boobies. Not that that is too terrible a problem to have.

He spends much of the anime wondering why the hell the hottest looking girl in school would have an eye for him. Of course, we know why and that is what makes it funny, but I couldn't help but feel bad for Takashi. He wants a relationship, but she only wants sex and neither of them can seem to get what they want.

Wait a minute? Isn't this the opposite order of things? It's normally the men (from a stereotypical point of view, at least) that prefer sex to relationships, isn't it? Hmm. I couldn't help wonder what kind of statement this anime was trying to make. For an anime that really pushed the boundaries for subject matter it seemed fairly restrained in a lot of respects, too. As if it wanted to tell a story more so than it wanted to show boobies. Sometimes. Who put this story stuff in my ecchi comedy, damn it!

Although it does tease with hopes of seeing cleavage.

Aside from worrying the moral implications of enjoying an anime like this (such as the main character being fifteen and the whole "wanting to have sex with a hundred guys" thing), I didn't find very much I about which I could complain.

The anime is a very shallow on the surface, but it does explore the relationship between sexual desires and more platonic ones.

Yet this anime really isn't that deep and you can basically leave your brain on autopilot. That was what I wanted, too. My brain is still tired from trying to keep up with Baccano!. So this was great to just sit and watch while drinking beer. Or whiskey.

While this is definitely an ecchi anime it doesn't overload the fanservice like, say, Queen's Blade. It's there, though. Not exactly family entertainment.

I give one thumb up because my other hand is holding my Attack On Titan beer mug.